Naked Came the Stranger

The book Naked Came the Stranger was a literary hoax perpetrated by several well-known writers and critics in 1969. Mike McGrady, a well-known Newsday columnist, recruited an all-male team of fellow hoaxers to collaborate on a sexually-explicit novel with no literary or social value whatsoever. Writing under the pseudonym Penelope Ashe (as portrayed in photographs and meetings with publishers by McGrady's sister-in-law), the group wrote the book as a deliberately inconsistent and mediocre hodge-podge, with each chapter written by a different author.

Fulfilling McGrady's cynical expectations, the book was wildly successful; however, as sales continued to increase, many of the co-authors felt guilty about the large amounts of money they were earning, and went public.

Subsequently, McGrady and his collaborators were approached about writing a sequel; they refused.

External link

• Museum of Hoaxes – Naked Came the Stranger